THE AQUAEIUM, JANUARY, 1895. 



59 



refS 



Queries. 



For the small sum of fifty cents in advance, 

 Tvhich ]iays for a year's subscription to The 

 Aquabium. you are entitled to ask informa- 

 tion on any point regarding the aquarium or 

 the window garden. We oflfer no other i^rem- 

 ium to our subscribers than that of putting 

 our 25 years of practical experience in these 

 1)ranches at their disposal. Ask as many 

 ciuestions as you please, but please (o enclose 

 postage for reply. All questions are answered 

 by mail, and we publish only such iu these 

 columns as are of general interest. 



Mrs. K. — Angle iron is bar-iron, 

 which, instead of being flat, is sha];)ed 

 in the rolling-mill to form a right 

 angle. It comes in bars of about twenty 

 feet in length. From these bars sec- 

 tions of any length may be cut by any 

 iron worker. The price is very reason- 

 able, one inch angle iron costs abotxt 

 three (3) cents a running foot. The 

 <3ost of the glass for an aquarium 24x 

 12x15 high, is about 81.50. This in- 

 •cludes the glass bottom. 



Water snails are small fleshy animals 

 that live in hard spiral-shaped cases 

 {shells). Sea shells are the empty cases 

 of those frequenting the ocean. They 

 feed on vegetable and decomposing ani- 

 mal matter ; for that reason they are 

 •excellent scavengers for an aquarium. 



Mr. M. — When minnow^s are affected 

 with fungus it is generally caused by 

 rough handling when they are caught. 

 Many people take hold of the minnows* 

 tails when they pick them up, this being 

 the quickest way to take them up. This 

 mode may be good enough when the 

 minnow is to be used to bait a fishing 



line, but when it is to live in an aqua- 

 rium fungtis will soon appear on the 

 bruised part, spreading from here fore- 

 ward, and when it has reached the 

 middle of the body the fish dies. If 

 newly caught minnows are subjected to 

 a salt bath, one teaspoonful to a gallon 

 of water, and left in this for a couple 

 of days, they will generally come out 

 all right and enjoy life in an aquarium 

 for a year or two. 



Dr. B. — It would not be safe to put 

 your Paradise fish in a pond together 

 with goldfish. The Paradise fish Avould 

 manage to hold their own, but the 

 young goldfish would be devoured by 

 them as soon as hatched. One of the 

 main advantages of the Paradise is, 

 that it needs not to be put out of doors 

 in order to sjDawn, and one is thus ena- 

 bled to Avatch the entire, very interest- 

 ing proceedings of nest building, spawn- 

 ing and rearing of the young. After 

 the young are about ten days old they 

 may be put in an out-of door basin and, 

 if it has a warm exposure, they will 

 grow very rapidly without artificial 

 food and develop very brilliant colors. 



Miss Kitty. — In our book we do not 

 mention artificial feeding of the baby- 

 fish, because it is supposed that these 

 are "planted^' in the rearing pond, 

 where there is plenty of natural food 

 for them. If the babies are kept in a 

 wooden tub, a sawn-off' barrel for in- 

 stance, or an aquarium tank, then of 

 course it is necessary to feed them arti- 

 ficially in order to make them grow. 

 Feed them twice a day, or oftener, on 

 powdered IX L fish food, allowing at 

 each meal only what they will require for 

 that particular meal. The food should 

 be given at a regular feeding place : for 

 instance, if you set a flovv^er pot upside 

 down in the center of the tub, and on 



